Black Friday takes over Thanksgiving tradition

Thanksgiving has always been known as a family-orientated holiday throughout the many cultures, and has been celebrated at different points of the year by different countries. Having its origin from the 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the settlers held a harvest feast after a successful crop growing season. The feast consisted of the new settlers and Native Americans, featuring foods such as turkey, lobster, pumpkin, squash, and clam.

Many argue nowadays that Thanksgiving should be not celebrated for the true reason which involved killing many Native Americans, rather focus on family bonding. In Plymouth Massachusetts this year, there were two public commemorations being held. The official parade, in which townspeople dressed like pilgrims and marched to Plymouth Rock bearing blunderbusses and beating drums. The second choice was to stand on top of Coles Hill and to support indigenous people observe of what they call a national day of mourning in reminiscing of the destruction of Indian culture and peoples. But there comes a more recent problem in the history of Thanksgiving.

Black Friday has slowly but surely come up to take the spotlight away from Thanksgiving. Thousands of people wait in lines outside some of the bigger stores in America to get in on some of the hottest deals of the year. Some shoppers say they go to their annual family Thanksgiving feast first, then proceed to go to the malls/stores soon after eating. Although this may seem morally wrong, others tell us they skip their entire family Thanksgiving feast just to get some good deals. Stores that usually hold the most people include: Best Buy, Target, Old Navy, Walmart, JC Penney, Gamestop, etc. Tons of Thanksgiving enthusiasts are complaining that Black Friday, A.K.A. “Consumerism” is taking over the idea of Thanksgiving.

Although Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday and Black Friday is blatantly on Friday, a lot of deals start mid-Thursday, when doors open for early Black Friday access. Others wait in lines for as long as 24 hours, just to be in the front of these lines surrounding the stores. It seems to be the newer generation taking over with new ideals, and older generations don’t seem too happy about it. Thanksgiving losing it’s significance is a huge discussion whenever it comes around, since Black Friday keeps pushing itself forward every year with doors opening earlier, and deals becoming more appealing to shoppers. Hopefully, both days can respectfully act in their own manners to keep attendees on both sides happy, so everyone can enjoy the end of the eventful weekend.